Funny Games 1997
One of Haneke's better known pictures, Funny Games, follows Georg (Ulrich Muhe) and Anna (Susanne Lohtar) and their young son son Schorschi (Stefan Clapczynski). The three have recently arrived at their house on the lake and Georg is fairly preoccupied with getting his new boat in working order, the key to the success of the family's vacation plans. While Anna is in the kitchen, a strange man wearing white gloves arrives and asks her to borrow a couple of eggs. Things become even more curious when a second man arrives and begins obsessing over Georg's golf clubs.

The two men start referring to one another as Peter and Paul, and it soon becomes obvious that there's something wrong - these guys don't intend to leave. Georg comes back from his boat-related distractions and tries to get the two men out of the home but the conflict soon becomes violent and the family find themselves being held hostage by this pair of unstable criminals bent on forcing the three of them to join in on their funny games...

Director Michael Haneke made a brutal film that stands apart from most of the horror genre. It doesn’t rely on graphic visuals as much as on psychological horror. Haneke avoids falling into exploitation movie territory by putting almost all of the violence off screen, but the audio effects used in place of gory visuals more than make up for the lack of actual on-screen bloodshed.


Director: Michael Haneke
Cast: Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Muhe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering
Country: Austria
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller

BD50, DVD9 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 01:49:13 | 46.3 Gb, 7.44 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Deutsch
Subtitles: English

Extras:
• "Trojan Horses" - interview with Haneke (25:09)
• "Bad Boy" interview with actor Arno Frisch (17:56)
• "Game Culture" - interview with film historian Alexander Horwath (28:07)
• Press conference from the 1997 Cannes Film Festival featuring Haneke and actors Susanne Lothar and Ulrich Muhe (44:12)
• Trailer (01:12)